HB 5197 Michigan House · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Campaign finance: contributions and expenditures; contributions by certain foreign entities; prohibit. Amends secs. 7, 15, 24, 26, 51 & 54 of 1976 PA 388 (MCL 169.207 et seq.) & adds sec. 34a.

HB 5197 bans contributions and expenditures to Michigan political campaigns from foreign governments, political parties, and businesses organized under foreign law. It defines "foreign national" broadly to include foreign entities, foreign-owned U.S. businesses (unless operating solely on domestic funds with U.S. decision-makers), and foreign governments. The bill amends Michigan’s Campaign Finance Act (1976 PA 388) by adding a prohibition in Section 34a and updating definitions in Sections 7 and 15. This directly affects political campaigns receiving funds and foreign entities seeking to influence Michigan elections.

Bill status passed both 4 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Oct 2025

Committee Review

Feb 2026

House Passage

Feb 2026

Senate Passage

Feb 2026

Governor

Introduced Oct 30, 2025 Last action Feb 11, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

As Passed by the House → Substitute (H-1) · 2 edits

MINOR

The bill text was reformatted from a legislative bill document into a webpage interface view, with the actual bill content replaced by a list of other bills in the Michigan Legislature's Rules Committee. No substantive policy changes were made to HB 5197 itself; the document appears to be a navigation or search result page rather than the bill text.

TECHNICAL

Original bill text and formatting were removed, including the bill's purpose statement and section definitions.

Webpage navigation elements and a list of other bills referred to the Rules Committee were added instead of the actual bill content.

House Introduced Bill → As Passed by the House · 7 edits · Feb 5, 2026

MODERATE

This bill amends Michigan's campaign finance act to strengthen transparency and enforcement around foreign national contributions, clarify definitions of key terms, and expand reporting requirements for committees and independent spenders. The changes add new definitions for 'foreign national' and 'bundled contributions', require ballot question committees to affirm no foreign national contributions were received, and create new complaint procedures with specific timelines for the secretary of state to investigate alleged violations.

Scope change

The bill expands the scope of reporting requirements to include bundled contributions and ballot question committees, while adding stricter prohibitions on foreign national involvement in ballot question campaigns.

DEFINITION

Added new definition of 'foreign national' to include foreign governments, foreign political parties, and foreign-owned US entities, broadening who is prohibited from making campaign contributions.

Modified definition of 'gift' to clarify that payments without equal consideration are reportable, and added definition of 'honorarium' with specific exclusions for elected officials.

REQUIREMENT

Added new section 34a requiring ballot question committees to obtain donor affirmations that they are not foreign nationals and have not received over $100,000 from foreign nationals in the prior 4 years.

Modified campaign statement requirements to include detailed reporting on bundled contributions, including contributor information and amounts delivered to candidate committees.

Added requirement for independent expenditure reports to include affirmations that the spender has not knowingly accepted over $100,000 from foreign nationals in the prior 4 years.

ENFORCEMENT

Added new complaint procedures allowing citizens to file complaints with the secretary of state, with specific timelines for responses, investigations, and public posting of outcomes.

Modified civil fine amounts for violations, including new provisions for false complaint certificates and increased fines for independent expenditure reporting violations.

Floor votes · House Feb 5, 2026

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 11, 2026

Committee

REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

upper

Feb 11, 2026

Upper · Passed

PASSED BY HOUSE WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT

upper

Feb 5, 2026

Lower · Passed

passed; given immediate effect Roll Call #32 Yeas 97 Nays 6 Excused 0 Not Voting 7

lower

Feb 5, 2026

Lower · Passed

substitute (H-1) adopted

lower

Feb 5, 2026

Committee

referred to second reading

lower

Feb 5, 2026

Lower · Passed

reported with recommendation with substitute (H-1)

lower

Dec 9, 2025

Lower · Passed

recommendation concurred in

lower

Dec 9, 2025

Lower · Passed

reported with recommendation for referral to Committee on Rules with substitute (H-1)

lower

Oct 30, 2025

Committee

referred to Committee on Election Integrity

lower

Oct 30, 2025

Introduced

introduced by Representative Rep. Rachelle Smit

lower

1 primary · 1 co-sponsor